Sometimes You Just Know
by iamextraordinary
Summary: A Chilton classmate's POV of Tristan and Rory's relationship. AU. Previously posted on my LJ.


**SOMETIMES YOU JUST KNOW**

They would be pushed up against the lockers after school, no, they wouldn't be kissing... but it seemed like they were being intimate even without that contact. They would talk in low tones, her blue eyes meeting his own, exchanging silent signals while they murmured plans and promises to each other. His left hand would be placed against the lockers she was leaning against, and his right would be captured against her own. Her left would drift up to his cheek and they would laugh or they would be at his chest, when they were talking about something serious.

We would watch them, curious about these two people who had, at such a young age, devoted themselves to each other. They grew up together, they were best friends and lovers. We had no doubt that she was still saving herself, she was that type... but what was surprising was that he waited. No, he wasn't that type. They had grown so close over the years that when they had entered high school, the labels didn't stick to them as well as it did others.

He was a slacker, got good grades, but he never exerted himself. He was just one of those kids you know? Born with a silver spoon in his mouth, he never had to try hard for anything. Even love came easy to him. He played pranks and practical jokes were his specialty, but he never needed too much discipline. It was like he was born with the innate knowledge of things that could be termed too much, and he never went out of line. He didn't play for a school team, but his body was toned like an athlete's. The private pool and gym at his place was handy. He had a natural grace about him and a killer smile. Too bad his charm was always directed at one person. It would have come in handy had he been inclined to use it against anyone else.

She was immune to his charm, naturally... but it was like something else, something none of us could see still pulled her to him nonetheless. It seemed to the outside community that they had nothing in common. She was head of the student body and got stellar grades, not just because of her intelligence, but because she really did study. She could be found most days in the library or out in the garden reading or writing her articles for the school paper. Her mother had spurned society, but the daughter that came out of the scandal fit in like a glove. She was her grandparent's pride and joy. Never a toe out of line or a harsh word to cross her lips. She just wasn't the type. She was innocence and beauty embodied... but her upbringing had steeled her against the judgments and frustrations that society hurled at her. She couldn't care less.

We would watch them walk hand in hand to his car, he would open the door for her and he would lean in to give her a kiss before shutting it. He drove her home every single day and we would watch her watching him walk around the front to get to the driver's side. She had eyes for no one else.

They fought publicly once and the whole school gathered around to watch in shock. He had forgotten to call her after one of their dates and she had rushed to his house at twelve midnight to find him sleeping soundly on his bed. She had a test the next day and flunked. She did not take it well. He told her she was overreacting and she said he was holding her back. They didn't speak for a week.

He avoided her and she resolutely went her way. The whole school waited with bated breath. A man picked her up on a motorcycle on the fourth day. We saw him watching the two drive away with a look of worry on his face. We wondered if she had found someone new and if this heralded a new beginning for our school's most popular couple. She showed up at school two days after the motorcycle incident with red-rimmed eyes and a rumpled uniform. It was as if she had forced herself out of bed. Our school princess didn't want to be where she was at the moment. We watched the prince reign his emotions in as he silently watched her movements. His gaze assessing and watchful. On that same day he finally went up to her. This time she was crying openly in the hallway, surrounded by the books that had burst out of her locker when she tried to copy his method of opening the unrepentant inanimate object for her.

"Crying over spilt books?" he said, his voice playful, his face dead serious. He started to pick up the books gathered around her and she watched for a few seconds before sliding to the floor herself and curling her arms around his neck and burying her face in the side. Her shoulders shook with her sobs and his arms pulled her onto his lap as he knelt on the floor, his legs slowly numbing. He was good at that, soothing her hurts away.

The news hit the school the next day. Christopher Hayden had met an accident on his way into Hartford. He had not survived the crash. Christopher was her father. He had liked Tristan and loved his daughter, but he did not have the patience to stay in one place for long. He liked to travel, a lot. He was spontaneous and fun, but responsibility was a foreign concept to him. Now he wouldn't get a chance to grow up.

Most of the class were required by our parents to attend the grandiose funeral thrown by Christopher's parents. It was one of those events that one HAD to attend. We saw the two of them there. He was standing on one side, holding her while her mother huddled alone in her grief. We heard that she and Lorelai were close, but that Christopher's death hit them both hard since he and Lorelai had fought before he left for his parent's house. Straub and Francine Hayden looked shell-shocked as they gazed down at the casket that lowered their only son, only child into the ground.

As the first pile of dirt was shoveled into the grave, Rory's hand shot out to clamp on her mother's. We marveled at the strength that they both showed as the body of the man they both loved, though in different ways, was placed in his final earthly resting place. The sun shone high on the sky that day as if to mock the solemn proceedings it was bearing witness to.

She was more solemn after, it was as if a light had gone out inside of her. He was the only one who could make her smile like she used to, and he tried to do it as often as possible. She was made valedictorian of our class and he tied with someone else for salutatorian. They say that no one remembers second placers, but that commencement day, our handsome prince knelt down on stage in front of all our families and classmates and asked the the princess to marry him. She cried and nearly messed up the valedictory speech she later delivered. We would always remember their faces as they gazed at each other on stage, her fingers twisting the ring he had put on a chain around her neck in her hands.

They were both bound for Yale, their families being a legacy there. Not many of us were able to attend with them. We all had our own paths and dreams to follow, but we thought of them often as the realities of University life caught up to us, broken hearts and new dreams were thrown in our paths. We wondered if they had gotten married or if they had split up, like most high school sweethearts fresh out of school were bound to do. We knew she was set on journalism and that he was planning to take the legal world by storm. These two never did things half way. They weren't built like that.

We would hear bits and pieces about them, but we were so caught up in our own lives the news didn't really register. We nodded our heads sagely, and wished them well before going on with our own lives.

Ten years later, we were back at the Chilton gates, it was a place that held so many memories for us. We had practically lived here for four years, it was both hell and heaven. We were much older, but the building still made us feel like we were entering our first year. Our classmates looked older, but the same old jokes applied. As we signed in and received our directories and name tags, we scanned the roster for two names. We weren't still idolizing them after all these years, but we did wonder about what became of our golden couple.

A Lorelai Leigh Hayden was listed and a Tristan Mikhail DuGrey. We figured that University life had indeed torn the two apart. Perhaps he had strayed, or perhaps her goals had led her into another's arms, who knew? We gossiped amongst ourselves and caught up with each other, unmindful of the new arrivals waiting to be ushered through the door.

A tall blond man with piercing gray-blue eyes was surveying the crowd, a little girl in his arms. By his side, a brunette woman wiped her son's mouth free of the crumbs his meal had left there. They smiled up at each other, like the way they had when he had her against the lockers, and once she was finished she took his free hand in hers as their little girl lay her head on her Daddy's left shoulder.

The crowd started as the couple calmly walked through the mass, shaking the hands of their friends and introducing their children. We looked more closely at her name tag, it said Rory DuGrey. We asked them why she was listed by her maiden name in the roster and she laughed, saying that when the school had sent in their request for updates regarding status, her office had sent in her professional name. She was a travel journalist for the Times and her human interest pieces were under her maiden name.

Tristan grinned at his wife and told his friends that his practice was doing very well. He had inherited his father's law firm and he and Rory had merged Hayden Group with the DuGrey law practice when Straub passed away. He was a stay-at-home dad for the most part and only took on the biggest cases that came into the office. He and the children traveled with Rory when they could and their family had been to various places around the world. They preferred having their young children with them at all times and absolutely refused to leave them with the help. They were strange like that. We had left our own children to nannies and tutors... who had time to be parents anyway? We had our meetings and deadlines and the rush to the top meant we had to leave some things behind. We puzzled over the way the two fawned over their kids.

So it seemed as if the perfect couple in high school had carried over their perfect tendencies into their adult lives. He was still madly in-love with her and she was still as devoted to him as they both had been when they were children. Seeing them again made us examine our own lives with our own spouses. What secret had they survived on all these years? What made the two of them tick? Why did they fit so well together?

When we asked Tristan, he just shrugged his shoulders and smiled warmly at us. He was a contented man, he didn't need to discover the why's and how's of their relationship. Rory was more forthcoming, yet her answer still left many of us confused. She told us that "Sometimes, you just know." and she took her sleepy son's hand as she and her husband made their way to an empty table.

Many years passed after that reunion, and we lost touch yet again... but her words haunted a few of us still. You see, we knew what she was talking about, we understood the concept, but we were doubtful whether it could really be that easy... they sure made it seem that way. They were two people who knew what they wanted and didn't cut corners when they went for it. Maybe that was our problem, maybe we thought too much about the outcome without really doing anything about things. Maybe we could all have been Tristan and Rory, had we believed enough and not been so afraid of losing.

Sometimes we meet people along our journey that seem to have it all. We study them and watch their movements, hoping that we are able to copy the dance that they are so effortlessly engaged in. We stop our own rhythm in order to copy theirs, and we lose the beat. We try to catch up, using their formula, but along the line, we need to realize that their moves were not built for us. They are there to show us potential. They are there to give us hope. We are not supposed to lose ourselves in them, rather, we are supposed to see them at a distance and perform our own dance to the beat of life. Our journeys are not parallel to each other, we criss and cross, go back and forward. It was made that way in order for us to learn from each other.

Like Rory and Tristan found out, we need to simply live each day the best we can. This is not a race, not a contest to see who comes out on top. We are simply players in the game of life, team mates. We each have a role to perform and if we get to the end, it is through the effort of the whole, although one individual could make all the difference. When you meet these individuals that play the game and dance effortlessly through life, smile and know that it could be you someday... but you need to follow your own beat and your own path. You need to take stock of what you have, seize the day, love with all your being.

We went to another funeral a few years back, Tristan's father had passed away. During the eulogy, he had raised sad eyes to the congregation and he had uttered words, that like his wife's, reminded us of the potential in each of us and in and every situation.

"We have our faults, we have our foibles... some of us are more broken than others... but what truly matters is that we each lived our lives on our own terms without sacrificing our true selves for others. People will remember a good man with smiles they will revere a great man with statues and plaques and street names... but in the end, we all will be mere names in the pages of history books and civil records. The people that matter are the people you touch today. The people whose lives you change today. These are the people you should keep in sight, these are the acts that are worth remembering. The people you love. The ones who love you... they are worth more than all the success in the world."

We will all pass away someday, and our legacies will be many and varied... but none of us will ever forget the couple that unknowingly showed us the potential in all things. They had lived for themselves and for each other, with no apologies and no holding back. They stuck to their beliefs and to their belief in each other. They never did anything half way. And neither would we.


End file.
